1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical kinematic analysis apparatus and a medical kinematic analysis method, particularly a medical kinematic analysis apparatus and a medical kinematic analysis method, which provide a cardiac motion component different in a direction from a systole/diastolic direction such as twist or rotation along with a cardiac motion component of the systole/diastolic direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
A medical kinematic analysis apparatus to measure a cardiac motion in precision from time-series image data obtained by capturing a heart as a subject, and analyze it for early diagnosis of cardiac disease such as myocardial infarction and stenocardia (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-99334 (4th page, FIG. 2)).
The typical motion of cardiac ventricular walls can be divided into a cardiac motion in a systole/diastolic direction and a motion due to twist or rotation (motion in a direction different from the systole/diastolic direction). The cardiac motion in the systole/diastolic direction is a motion accomplished by myocardial systole. Therefore, when aberration is found in the motion, this leads often to early diagnosis of, for example, myocardial infarction.
Generally, the cardiac motion in the systole/diastolic direction is larger than the cardiac motion due to twist or rotation. Therefore, a conventional medical kinematic analysis apparatus aims to measure and analyze a cardiac motion component of the systole/diastolic direction (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-265480 (3rd page, FIG. 1)).
In a certain cardiac region, the anomaly of the cardiac motion may appear in the motion due to twist or rotation more subtly than in the motion in the cardiac systole/diastolic direction. In such a region, to detect a motion component different in direction from the systole/diastolic, such as cardiac twist or rotation, may be effective in diagnosis. However, the conventional medical kinematic analysis apparatus could not measure or analyze the motion due to twist or rotation along with the motion in the cardiac systole/diastolic direction.
The conventional medical kinematic analysis apparatus could not derive the motion component different in direction from that in the cardiac systole/diastolic direction, such as twist or rotation, along with the cardiac motion component of the cardiac systole extension direction.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a medical kinematic analysis apparatus, and a medical kinematic analysis method of making it possible to acquire a cardiac motion component effective for diagnosis in the direction other than the systole/diastolic direction, such as twist or rotation along with a cardiac motion component of the cardiac systole/diastolic direction.